P.S. Presuming your work to be in demy 8vo. we would supply you with Impressions from our cuts upon the following terms: For 500 Sets, supposing each set occupied 5 sheets demy 8vo. printed on one side only (in all 40 pages of cuts,) 377. 10s. which sum would include the use of the Blocks, Presswork, and Paper. .... .... .... .... £ s. d. 67 10 0 880 16 16 0 For 1,000 ditto ditto ditto, .... Resolved-That Messrs. TAYLOR and WALTON be requested to send 1000 copies of each set of plates. [It will be remembered that these plates have been requested for the illustration of the "Shanra Vidya," or Sanscrit translation of "Hooper's Anatomist's Vade Mecum." The thanks of the Society were directed to be proffered to Professor QUAIN for his liberal aid in acceding to their request.] Read a letter from Dr. J. T. PEARSON, forwarding an account of the Bora chung. Read a letter from Dr. G. G. SPILSBURY, forwarding a specimen of a vein of Coal found close to the surface, about nine miles from Jubbulpore. To the Secretary to the Asiatic Society. SIR,-Herewith I beg to transmit specimen of a vein of Coal found close to the surface, about nine miles from this station. It was first brought to notice by Mr. C. FRASER, the Agent of the GovernorGeneral for these territories, who received his information from a Faquir, by whom he was informed that at a place a few hundred yards above Lametur Ghat, on the Nerbudda river, when the stream was at its lowest, (Charcoal stone, as he phrased it) was to be found, and that on applying fire it ignited. Mr. FRASER and self visited the spot, situated near the middle of the river, and some 30 or 40 square yards, apparently the vein has also been traced on both sides of the river. Several of the residents have had hackery loads brought in, and find it answer well for domestic and culinary purposes. The blacksmiths are very unwilling to use it, and declare there is not sufficient heat from it to smelt iron. I have no doubt that were a proper shaft sunk, Coal of good quality would be found, and equal to that discovered by Major Ouseley near Garrahwarrah, and on which such a good report was lately made in comparative trials at Bombay. I have the honor to request you will present the specimen to the Society, and shall be glad to learn the result of its analysis. I remain, &c., Jubulpoor, 29th June, 1839. GEORGE G. SPILSBURY. The analysis of this Coal has been duly made, and the results will be published, with several similar analyses in an early number of the Journal. Read a letter from Dr. H. H. SPRY, forwarding on behalf of Captain F. JENKINS, Political Agent of Assam, for presentation to the Society, specimens of rocks and minerals of the county of Cornwall, as well as other parts of England. GENTLEMEN, Calcutta, August 6th, 1839. I do myself the pleasure of forwarding for presentation, at the approaching Meeting of the Asiatic Society, the accompanying specimens of the geology of the county of Cornwall, as well as other parts of England, on behalf of Captain JENKINS, the Political Agent of Assam; and for him I have to solicit, in return, any duplicate geological specimens the Society may possess for presentation to the Royal Institution of Cornwall. In this request I beg to join with Captain JENKINS, as we both feel assured that the rich stores which the Cornish Museum contains will be readily made available to the improvement of the Asiatic one, and an interchange thus be effected which will prove of mutual benefit. I beg further to add, that should the Society be pleased to accede to this proposal, that I shall be happy to be the medium of communication between the two institutions, so far as assisting in facilitating the transmission of the specimens. The Joint Secretaries of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. HENRY H. SPRY, The thanks of the Society were voted to Captain JENKINS, and the Curator was requested to form a suitable series of the Museum duplicates for presentation to that officer. With reference to this and some similar communications, the President observed that he was very desirous of recording his opinion that the correspondence of the Society, should on all occasions pass through the Secretaries, the regular and usual channels. Direct correspondence emanating from other officers of the Society he considered informal. He thought, for example, that all correspondence relative to the Museum should pass through the Secretaries, and he proposed a resolution to that effect, which was seconded by Mr. H. T. PRINSEP, and carried unanimously. Dr. M'CLELLAND presented some specimens of Mineral Ore with the following note : SIR,-I did myself the pleasure, some time last month, of forwarding to your address, a small package containing two or three specimens of Jasper and Asbestos, and one of Iron ore, entrusted to my care, when at Ferozepore, by Mr. C. MASSON, who told me that he had almost forgotten they were amongst his baggage, not having paid much attention to what was packed up by his servants when leaving Kabul. I had mislaid his ticket for the specimen of the ore, which I now enclose, lest I should have made any mistake in my own label, as to the place from whence the ore was obtained. I beg to add that the ore is nearly similar, but not quite so pure or rich looking, as that obtained from the mines in the southern portion of the Busahir state. GEORGE JEPSHON. Meerut, July 27th, 1839. Mr. H. T. PRINSEP recalled the attention of the Society to the proceedings of the Meeting of the Society held on the 6th September, 1837. Mr. JAMES PRINSEP had appropriated the sum of 1500 francs (equivalent to Co's. Rs. 625) remitted by the Minister of Public Instruction in France, in procuring from Benares copies of the Vedas which were sent to France, as prepared, through Capt. A. TROYER, agent of the Society in Paris. Since Mr. JAMES PRINSEP's departure for England several further Pothis have been sent down, and are now ready for transmission. The sum advanced has been exceeded by the charges for copying, and the balance has been paid from Mr. JAMES PRINSEP'S private funds, not from those of the Society. The copies in sheets were ready to be sent to Europe, and the account prepared from Mr. JAMES PRINSEP's private books of sums remitted by him to JUDDOONATH PUNDIT at Benares, shews an amount of Rs. 233: 7: 9, as the balance due by the Government of France; part of this amount however, viz. Rs. 196:3:6, was advanced at Benares from funds realised there by sale of the Society's Oriental publications, as shewn in the account of Messrs. TUTTLE and CHARLES, Mr. JAMES PRINSEP'S Agents. It remains for the Society now to declare whether the copying for the French Government shall be considered as a private transaction between Mr. JAMES PRINSEP and the French Government, or as executed by him as Secretary to the Society. In the former case, the balance 196: 3: 6, will be paid into the Society's Treasurer's hand, and the copies of the Vedas now ready, will be sent on Mr. JAMES PRINSEP's private account, with a claim for the balance from that Government; but if the Meeting consider the transaction as their own, then the Society will have to pay the difference between Rs. 196: 3:6 and 233: 7:9, viz., 37: 4: 3, to Mr. JAMES PRINSEP's agents, and to forward copies of Vedas officially through their Secretary to the Agent in Paris. Resolved unanimously-That the transaction is one which appertains to the Society; that the copies of the Vedas be taken over, and the account closed. The Honble. Mr. BIRD exhibited to the Meeting a sketch of the Camel carriage in which Mr. BIRD, of Allahabad, had recently made an official tour of 2000 miles in Upper India. This sketch, with some papers on the subject, will appear in our next number. Read extracts from a letter from Baron HUGEL to the address of MR. JAMES PRINSEP. 'Kritzing, near Vienna, Dec. 25, 1838. 'I have received a few days ago, the four numbers of your Journal, Nos. 72 to 75, and I cannot find words to express the interest I took in following from the beginning to the end, your extraordinary discoveries. It is really worthy of your spirit, of your genius, to come to a fact of such immense consequences for history, but I think it proves more than any thing else, of no direct intercourse between what is called the Peninsula of India and Egypt-I mean of no trading vessels from Berenice to any port of the Malabar coast. I don't believe in long voyages without sails in those days, and the knowledge the Greeks and Egyptians possessed of India is much better explained in the tablets of Girnar, than by the idea of savants travelling for information without the vanity of telling it in their works. But when really Mission aries went to Egypt and Greece it is astonishing that nothing of this truly interesting fact should have been mentioned in any work, of a Greek author. But this may be as it is, I am sure that you are only at the beginning of your work, and that we may look for real Indian history, from the time of Alexander the Great, at least, to the invasion of the Mohamedans. 'It is a considerable time I did not write to you, my dear Sir, but I was afraid to take away from your valuable time, which you employed even beyond my expectations: but if I did hesitate any longer to send you a few lines, I am afraid I could be entirely escape your memory. I take the liberty at the same time to send you for the Society (if you think it worthy) the Fishes of Kashmir," found by myself in the valley, and brought home with me. I am sorry that it is in German, but as it is my native tongue, I think it my duty to publish in it. There is another work now printing, which I hope will prove a good one: it is "Kashmir and the Sihks" in four volumes. 'I beg your being good enough to send for the subscription money for the Journal to Gillanders and Arbuthnot: it happened once (just one year ago) that I was obliged to pay 91. 17s. for four numbers of your Journal, postage from Calcutta to London : it was sent me from thence to Vienna by an Austrian Courier: Inade all kind of remonstrances, but without success. Pamphlets only" not having been written on the address, the Post Master General would not hear of a reclamation.' C. H. HUGEL.' [Some desultory conversation took place before the Meeting separated, as to the interruption of the Meteorological Register so long published in the Society's Journa It has been kept chiefly by Mr. GREENWAY, an assistant in the Calcutta Assay Office, who was trained by Mr. PRINSEP to the use of his unrivalled instruments, and to the correction of their indications by special tables now in Mr. GREENWAY's possession, Mr. PRINSEP had, moreover, as a parting request, urged Mr. GREENWAY not to discontinue observations which had acquired standard value in the estimation of all Meteorologists. Mr. CURNIN, the acting Assay-Master, has however deemed it necessary to prohibit Mr. GREENWAY's devoting any portion of his time to this employment, and Mr. CURNIN is further unwilling to allow Mr. PRINSEP's instruments to Under these circumstances, be removed from the Mint to any other establishment. Mr. REES, of the Surveyor-General's Office, has most liberally permitted his Registers to be made use of by the Society. We have already published that for July. The Barometrical observations are made with a first rate Troughton. We have taken measures for having the instrument accurately compared with others which have been adjusted by the Royal Society's standard, and the reductions to 32° will be duly calculated for quarterly periods. We propose too to add to the Register a daily double observation of the boiling point of water, taken with an excellent Thermometer, recently sent out to Mr. JAMES PRINSEP's order. This seems to us a desideratum of much importance. It is but justice, nevertheless, to Mr. CURNIN to add, that that gentleman considers the continuance of the observations to interfere with the duties of the Assay Office, and that he has offered to permit any competent person to attend at the Mint for the purpose. This arrangement, however, would be attended with so much expense and inconvenience, that it becomes absolutely impracticable.—EDs.] } |